Good episode and I get it BUT it seems strange too.  The whole episode and BIG FOOD isn't mentioned once.  When you were talking about the finger wagging of liberals and conservatives towards fat people, it reminded me of the finger wagging stories about really fat infants.  Those forces blamed the parents as if they were monsters but it was a function of baby formula being the most sugary crap ever created by evil corporations.  Those parents thought they were doing good for their babies by giving them formula instead of breast milk.  Hell, the obvious elephant in the room is Nestle who told mothers in the developing world that baby formula was better and their actions led to the deaths of thousands of babies when the formula became unaffordable.  The world gets disgusting food and drink pushed on them by Agribusiness and big food.  Maybe it making people fat is largely a bullshit obsession of the West out of colonialism but there is a colonial diet that has made the world terrible.

“The elites are out to get you and your hard-earned pay.” “We’re spending too much on protecting foreign nations and not enough defending our own borders against immigrant invaders.” “China is taking your job and will soon take over your phone.” We are consistently fed this type of “rightwing populism” –– sticking up for the working man against an array of villains: coastal elites, liberal media and foreign boogeymen - but replete with seamy audience flattery, xenophobic and anti-Semitic dogwhistles and confusing, ever-shifting definitions of what exactly constitutes “the elite” and “the media.”

With the rise and eventual presidency of Donald Trump there’s been no shortage of pontificating and reporting about the appeal of “rightwing populism” but one aspect worth dissecting is the way in which wealthy Republican-funded media deliberately seeks to win over confused and sometimes lefty media consumers with a clever mix of faux class warfare, vague appeals to post-partisanship and piggybacking off legitimate discontent with the Democratic party to sow nihilism and suppress voter turnout.

From Jacksonian "Producerism" to Trump’s fake anti-imperialism to the shameless grifts of today’s billionaire-backed hucksters like JD Vance, the right has long tried to soap box about the beleaguered working man and rail against the mysterious - often urban, black, brown or Jewish - authors of his pain and suffering.

In this episode, Part Two of our two-part episode on right-wing populism, we dissect three more tropes of "right-wing populism," detailing the ways the Republican messaging apparatuses seek to rebrand their stale platform every 10 years with a new, tweaked version of warmed over John Bircherism.

Our guest is Poor People's Campaign co-chair Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis.

Ep 148: The GOP’s ‘Rightwing Populism’ Rebrand (Part II) - Messaging Wars in 'White America'

A character played by an actor in a fat suit shovels food in his face, unable to restrain himself in a fit of rage. Another falls, too lazy and out-of-shape to get up without the aid of others. And yet another loses weight and avenges the anti-fat bullying she faced growing up, finally earning respect as a thin person.

We see all of these tropes ad nauseam in film, television, literature, and other forms of arts and pop culture. They’re a manifestation of a deep cultural hostility toward fat people - one that perpetuates a centuries-long stigma that both reduces them to their size and their eating habits, with little curiosity about any other facets of their lives, and equates their bodies with the sins of sloth, greed, and gluttony.

The results: degradation, dehumanization, and a constant, unrelenting message that fatness is a moral failure. Whether in 19th Century sideshows and cartoons presenting fat people as the object of humiliation and scorn, sitcoms and movies of the 1990s using fat suits for a cheap laugh, or new dramedies that continue to miss the mark, the characterization of fat people as sin incarnate has hardly changed, thanks to a virulent and complex nexus of racism, classism, and misogyny.

On this episode, we explore how mass media perpetuate anti-fatness in Western, and especially American, culture, examining the ways in which imperial conquest and capitalist development laid the foundation for hostility toward fat people; how even supposedly enlightened liberals use the thin patina of public health to mask routine anti-fat bullying; and the methods Hollywood and other sources of cultural products use to present fat characters as punchlines and nuisances who can only be kooky best friends or degenerate villains.

Our guest is Professor Amy Erdman Farrell, author of Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture.

Ep 149: How Fatness Became a Cheap Joke and Proxy for Moral Deficiency in Pop Culture

“Supply and demand.” “It’s just Econ 101.” “Most economists agree...” “There’s always trade offs.”

Over and over, media and policymakers spew the same tired recitations meant to convey the seemingly natural, immutable laws of economics. "The economy," we’re told, is thriving when business owners and job creators are making record profits, and failing when investments in social programs have simply grown too high — and that’s the way it is and will, and should, always be.

These terms, phrases and sentiments are part of a lexicon of economic euphemisms, cliches, and other forms of business-school speak designed to blur class lines and convince us that our economic system — entirely a result of policy choices largely designed to further enrich the wealthy at any the expense of the broader welfare — is a function of cold, hard science, with rules and principles no more pliable than those of physics or chemistry.

But why should we be expected to just accept that a news report that “the economy” is on the upswing means the average worker is doing any better, when all evidence is to the contrary? Why should our media’s economic so-called “experts” come from a pool of elite economics departments beholden to corporate donors and right-wing think tanks? And why must “the economy” be defined in terms of whether the Dow is up or down, instead of whether people have food, housing, healthcare, and job security?

On this episode, part one of a two-part series, we examine the first five of our ten most popular clichés, jargon, and rhetorical thingamajigs that economists, economic reporters, and pundits use to sanitize, obscure, and provide a thin gloss of Science-ism to what is little more than power-flattering, cruel, racist, austerity ideology.

Our guest is writer Hadas Thier.

How Economic Jargon and Cliches Make Cruel, Anti-Poor Policies Sound Sterile and Science-y (Part I)

A blast from the past teaches a town to embrace tradition and believe in miracles we simply can’t explain. A cynical urban professional finds kindness and purpose while traveling through the heartland. Two old flames living in the fast lane discover, amid the magic of Christmas, that they were meant for each other all along.

These loglines describe the plots of countless movies made for and broadcast by Hallmark, the famed greeting card company-turned-media conglomerate that has become synonymous with made-for-TV Christmas movies. The Hallmark Cinematic Universe is one in which the fantasies of conservatives everywhere are played out: everyone in town is part of a white nuclear family, bartenders and waiters are happy to be of service, single women are emotionally unfulfilled, police and the military are uniformly viewed as heroes, and the largesse of the wealthy brings joy to wholesome small towns.

While it’s easy, and of course fun, to dunk on Hallmark and Hallmark-inspired Christmas movies, it’s also worth examining the political currents of Christmas movie schmaltz. What ideological precepts are their themes of nostalgia meant to reinforce? And what tropes do they perpetuate behind the cozy iconography of fuzzy sweaters and snow-lined sidewalks?

On this episode, we seek to answer these questions, focusing on four movies: Journey Back to Christmas (2016), The Christmas Train (2017), Entertaining Christmas (2018), and Operation Christmas Drop (2020). We’ll dive into the ways in which nostalgia for an imaginary MAGA-style past informs their character development, settings, and plots, leaving little room for messaging other than ‘Let’s go back to the good old days.’

Our guest is writer David Roth.

Ep. 152: Hallmark Christmas Movies and the Cozy, Conservative Nostalgia Machine

"Let’s get this guy off the streets before he targets another innocent person." "If you’ve seen any of these fugitives, call our hotline now." "Thanks to a courageous tipster who did the right thing, this criminal won’t be bothering anybody else for a very long time."

For decades, local and national media - from nightly news broadcasts partnering with Crime Stoppers to primetime TV shows like America’s Most Wanted - have warned consumers of dangerous criminals on the lam, lurking outside our neighborhood grocery stores. The FBI and police departments throughout the country, the public is told, are doing everything they can to catch The Bad Guys—they just need a little help from concerned, responsible, and vigilant citizens like you.

Cue the calls to action imploring people to submit tips through hotlines, law enforcement websites, and social media. But what are the effects of this model, and how effective, really, is it? How does it shape the ways in which the US public understands crime? And why, after all of the scholarship documenting how police do little to make us more safe does this vigilante television addiction persist?

On this episode, we examine how news and pop cultural media deputize and urge listeners, readers, and viewers to act as neighborhood vigilantes. We study how this instills a climate of constant, unnecessary fear; presents the current US and criminal legal system as the only option to reduce crime; excludes crimes against the poor and working class like wage theft, food and housing insecurity, and lack of healthcare; and how these systemics can inflict unjust harm upon the subjects of these anonymous tips.

Our guest is journalist Tana Ganeva.

Ep 153: Crime Stoppers, America's Most Wanted and Rise of Vigilante TV News

Charles, Alex, and Joel wonder if Future got hacked (turns out he didn't), check in on CryptoBatz, and discuss Joel's new album as Basement Family.
Basement Family album on bandcamp: https://basementfamily.bandcamp.com/
BF on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3nsOUsEOK0x2R7ePydg62K
Fortune Kit on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fortunekit

120 - Basement Family (ft. @thevillainjoel)

Charles, Alex, and Dan talk about Johnny Rotten spending over $15,000 on pay-to-win iPad games and take a 2000s indie rock quiz.

Fortune Kit on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fortunekit

124 - Johnny Rotten Spent $15,000 on Game of War

Andrew and Ben are joined by comedian, streamer and dear friend of the podcast Tom Walker to talk about Dutch annual fish rituals, a surprising amount of frogs in a surprising place, and a surprising amount of Americans in a surprising place.
***
Support our show and get exclusive bonus episodes by subscribing on Patreon: www.patreon.com/BoontaVista
***
Email the show at mailbag@boontavista.com! Call in and leave us a question or a message on 1800-317-515 to be answered on the show!
***
Twitter: twitter.com/boontavista
Website: boontavista.com
Merchandise: shop.boontavista.com/
Twitch: twitch.tv/boontavista

EPISODE 253: A Place To Put Some Herring (with Tom Walker)

Bonus Episodes

Lucy, Andrew, and Ben give you: A Tipping Report, the return of the Boeing 737 MAX, two perfectly sound scams, an accident at the snake ranch, and going off grid with your Instagram famous raccoon.
***
Support our show and get exclusive bonus episodes by subscribing on Patreon: www.patreon.com/BoontaVista
***
Email the show at mailbag@boontavista.com! Call in and leave us a question or a message on 1800-317-515 to be answered on the show!
***
Twitter: twitter.com/boontavista
Website: boontavista.com
Merchandise: shop.boontavista.com/
Twitch: twitch.tv/boontavista

EPISODE 255: The Chilean Goodbye

If you want to hear Bryan dive deep into the world of parody movies then you should check out our Patreon where you can get access to “Movies Cinematic Universe!” plus a slew of other series that are updated every week! - www.patreon.com/streetfightradio

Join the chat to talk to us while we record these episodes live every wednesday and sunday at 8pm on Twitch,Youtube & Facebook.

Street Fight Radio Twitch - www.twitch.tv/streetfightradio
Street Fight Radio Youtube - www.youtube.com/c/StreetFightWCRS
Street Fight Radio Facebook - www.facebook.com/StreetFightWCRS/

Every Sunday at 8pm we do a show where we take calls from y’all. If you want to call in you can reach us at - (614) 655-3887

We love getting free things from y’all!
Street Fight Mail - P.O Box 82306 Columbus, OH 43202

Honor Thy Fallen Brands

Our Superdelegate patron tier was mad as hell that we hadn't yet discussed Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky's NETWORK (1976) and wasn't going to take it anymore. We watched an American classic and discovered that Howard Beale's famous speech isn't even the most important speech in the movie.

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

Michael and Us

#357 - A Vast and Ecumenical Holding Company

Citations Needed is a podcast about the media, power, PR, and the history of bullshit. It is hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson, and produced by Florence Barrau-Adams.

Ep 149: How Fatness Became a Cheap Joke and Proxy for Moral Deficiency in Pop Culture

Citations Needed Podcast

Recent comments

AllOverTheMap

Related tracks